Plural or singular verbs?

Question

Should plural or singular verbs be used in the following sentences? All subjects are uncountable nouns.
Air, water and food is/are important to humans.
Air, water and food is/are important thing(s).

Should plural or singular verbs be used in the following sentences? The subjects are plural but the objects are singular.
Two years is/are not a long time.
Two metres is/are not a long distance.
Two pounds is/are not a large sum of money.

Answer 1

Air, water, and food are important to humans.

Air, water, and food are important things.

The subjects are air, water, and food.



A single uncountable noun is treated as singular.

A compound of different uncountable nouns is treated as plural.

(note: In this sentence, the subject is a compound, therefore it is singular.)



Two years is not a long time.

We are not talking about 'two items of year'. We are talking about 'the duration of two years'.

Answer 2

Traditional prescriptive grammar would require plural verbs in every case. But English is too pragmatic (and too ill disciplined) to let grammar prevail over the speaker's or the writer's gut instinct: I like to compare this cavalier treatment of mere grammar to the English legal system: the only logical reason for creating our jury system was to allow laymen to disregard the rules and return a perverse verdict if they thought that the rules did not really fit the case.

Just as, if you look upon a singular as logically plural, you can get away with "the whole family are in love with the new baby", or "the government are all hell-bent on approving fracking for oil", so in your last three examples very many Anglophones would use the singular, justifying it either by saying that they look upon a certain amount (of time, distance, or money) as a unitary concept, or by regarding what comes after the verb as its "true" subject. Vivat anarchia, ruat coelum.

If you want a language where rules are clear and rigidly enforced, give up your English for German or French or Latin or whatever,,,,They are all like a bunch of obedient German pedestrians refusing to cross an empty street because the light is red, .

Answer 3

Air, water and food are important--the subject is compound (three things) and therefore plural.



Two years is not a long time.

Two metres is not a long distance.

Two pounds is not a large sum of money.



There are no objects in these sentences, there are subjects and complements. All are singular because they are treated as a unit.

Answer 4

plural. singular

Answer 5

plural verbs for use in staments.